Linda Heim ('70, B.S., elementary education) and Al Martorana ('68, B.A., literature and philosophy) met in the Old Main auditorium while attending a lecture on African Studies during the summer quarter of 1966.
Linda's roommate introduced us. Linda asked me if I wanted to share a ride to Long Island. I said, "No, I plan on staying on campus this weekend." Actually, I had plans to enlist in the military during the following week as a Viet Nam War ambulance driver a la my literary hero, Ernest Hemingway. Fun, travel, adventure. But summer had other plans for us.
Al Martorana and Linda HeimLinda did not go home that weekend. We met that Saturday evening at a dance in Parker Dining Hall. While we were dancing and talking, I knew that I would marry her someday.
We spent that summer quarter meeting each other daily on the path from Bouton Hall to Gage Hall. We accompanied each other to class, often walking across planks of wood in the muddy construction sites near the Temporary Arts Building (TAB). Almost every Sunday night we attended the movie at Old Main and dances in Parker Dining Hall on Saturdays. We treated each other to ice cream at the College Union and enjoyed concerts in the Elting Gym. We were married on July 4, 1968 and celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary in Ireland this year. We'll always remember someone calling out from the window at Bouton Hall as we walked by, "There goes Big Al and Big Al's girl!"
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